MadSci Network: Physics
Query:

Re: Would a packet of high energy neutrons alter the path of a nearby electron?

Date: Sun Mar 24 14:31:24 2013
Posted By: Randall Scalise, Faculty, Physics
Area of science: Physics
ID: 1363840876.Ph
Message:

Charles,

I don't understand your question, so I'm going to have to guess a
little bit.  Also, one of the parameters in the question, 10m, seems
absurdly large for a neutron beam.  Perhaps that's a typo.  I can't
tell if the "thin cylinder" has a diameter much smaller than its
length like a pencil lead, or a length much smaller than its diameter
like a CD.

You might be asking if the electrons will form a diffraction pattern
since the neutron beam looks like a diffraction grating.  If this is
indeed the case, I recommend Lorentz transforming (boosting) into the
rest frame of the neutrons.  Calculate the rest lengths of the packets
and spaces.  In this new frame, the electrons will approach the
neutron grating at an angle which you can figure out from the special
relativistic law for adding perpendicular velocities, that is the
velocity of the electrons in the y-direction and the frame boost
velocity in the x-direction.

Because the electron beam now makes an angle with the vector normal to
face of the neutron diffraction grating, the effective grating spacing
is reduced by the cosine of this angle.  Once you find the diffraction
pattern in the rest frame of the neutrons, you can then Lorentz
transform it back into the original laboratory frame.

I based my guess on your second and third hashtags,
#uncertaintyprinciple and #slitexperiment.  I could not see a way to
incorporate your first hashtag, #gluonfields, into my answer since the
electrons, being leptons, will not feel the strong interaction mediated
by gluons.


--Dr. Randall J. Scalise    http://www.physics.smu.edu/scalise



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